The Coldest of Hearts
by God of Fire
Summary: The war is over and darkness will reign throughout the land. What will Hermione say when Severus delivers this news? What side will she choose?


Hermione stood on the ridge overlooking the distant lands surrounding her home. Their home. Faintly she wondered if she would ever again see her beloved; see his dark figure looming even in the distance if not in her arms. A feeling of worry rose within her as she realized that in all reality Severus would probably not be coming home. Ever. He had gone off to fight the great war in the east.  
  
Snow sprinkled its cold winter above her head, layering the ground in white beneath her feet and on the landscape all around her. A breeze that had once been warm in the summers long before Severus had left was colder now than ever. She shivered and pulled her cloak tighter around her body, raising the hood over her head to protect her face.  
  
A black bird, a raven, crowed and flew overhead. Smiling, Hermione thought to herself about how much the bird reminded her of Severus. He had once owned a bird like that. Long ago when they had still lived and taught at Hogwarts. But that had been years ago as well. Now the school was gone and its remains crushed and spread throughout the land and sea. Voldemort's doing.  
  
Lately there had been rumors of the end to the war, but she didn't believe them. Why should she? There had always been ongoing rumors about the end of the war, although they were never true. That was why they were rumors. And even they did not bring her even the slightest bit of hope that Severus was coming back. Words did nothing.  
  
Again the black raven circled over hr head, his call a mockery to her. She reached in her pocket for her wand. She would cast a spell to knock the damned bird out of the sky. But her wand was not there. She had left it in the house, on the bedside table.  
  
"Just you wait," Hermione said warningly to the bird as it landed on the nearby bare branch of a tree. "I'll be coming back for you."  
  
Hermione turned and walked back toward the house; a small cottage in the middle of the Scottish Highlands. Beautiful country if she ever did see any, and it wasn't too far away from where Hogwarts once used to stand. That was the practical use in the nature of their home. It was easily within a reachable distance for when the classes were done with.  
  
Pausing just before walking inside, Hermione looked around at the exterior of the house, its lazy and plain wood planks. She wouldn't have it painted, no matter how much Severus had fought her on the subject. She liked the house just as it was. As plain as it was.  
  
The old wooden floor creaked in the same spot it always did as she took the first step down the hallway. It was a short hallway; two bedrooms for the two of them, and they had taken hope that there might have been a third one day.  
  
Hermione laid a hand on her stomach, sad at the emptyness within. No, they had never concieved a child. The war had taken the toll on both of them and the time hadn't been right. But it hadn't stopped either one from dreaming. Severus had gone so far as to install a crib and shelving for when the time was right.  
  
Hermione touched the door to that bedroom, not daring to open it. She walked on down past the bathroom and into the bedroom she once shared with her Severus. Nothing about the room had changed with the exception of its lack in inhabitant. She wouldn't have had it any other way.  
  
Making her way to the bed, Hermione felt compelled to lay on Severu's side of the bed, burying her face in his pillow. It still smelled of his familiar scent; the wind, rain, and moonlight. Many tears had been shed in their bed, onto his pillow. It was customary to cry for him on most nights of the week. Hermione paid no more attention to her tears anymore. Crying was a task done as simple as washing th dishes or the laundry.  
  
As Hermione laid there, the tears once more came to her and she drifted off to sleep, forgetting all about the raven and all about the war. It was in her dreams that she could see Severus. In her dreams she could feel him.  
  
And it was in this lucid dream that she could feel his hot breath on the back of her neck. She could hear his silky voice speaking the things only lovers spoke. A tingling sensation crawled up her spine. And jsut as she turned around to face him, she faced the celing of her bedroom, her eyes wide open and heart pumping in her ears. It had all been one good dream.  
  
On the wind outside she could hear her name being whispered. Thoughtlessly she stood and walked down the hallway and to her front door. It stood open as she had left it upon entering the house hours earlier, when the light of the day still at its fullest. Now only the fading light remained, the trees sillouetted against the sunlight in the west.  
  
The snow clung to the ground in heavy white clumps, her tracks from before now covered in the solid blanket that covered everything in sight. Everything in her life was a memory anymore. Even her love was a memory.  
  
Once again there was a whisper of her name on the wind. She looked to the direction of the wind's origin but saw nor heard nothing. It seemed that she was now going through a series of hallucinations.  
  
With a resigned sigh Hermione turned to go back inside. There was no use in standing out in the cold of the evening with the prospect of another snow storm rising from the east. But there again was her name on the wind.  
  
Once more she turned around, but it was not toward the origin of the wind that she gazed, but to the west in the direction of the little light that was left in the day. There she saw a figure clad in black standing, his cloak billowing in the breeze no more than a hundred feet away.  
  
A gasp escaped her lips as she saw him standing there, a look of relief on his face. He smiled to her, his lips curving up in a smile she had never seen on his face before.  
  
There was no more waiting for Hermione as she threw herself off of the front porch and into the deep snow, running through the resistance to her lost love. She could not let the white drifts keep her held back any longer. She had already been kep away from his for so long anyway.  
  
And in an instant she was there at his side, in his arms, breathing in his very essence. Her lips mingled with his in a blinding mix of snow and of kiss. Their bodies protected each other from the cold of the night. They were together at last.  
  
"Too many nights have I waited on this very moment, and now that you're here, I don't know what to say," Hermione breathed as she lay her head on his chest, his heart beating wildly beneath her ear.  
  
"Then say nothing, for I long for silence," Severus said while running his hands through her long, shimmering locks of hair.  
  
"Do you not long for me?"  
  
"I long for your love, and for your aid with the demons that have indeed taken over this world."  
  
"Then the war is not over?"  
  
"The war is finished, and it is the darkness that will now own our souls."  
  
Hermione lookd up from her safe haven and into his eyes. They were as black as they had even been, now with more than just a hint of the evil that had lingered for so long due to his service in the company of the Death Eaters. Now there was a pure and simple malice.  
  
"What has happened to you?" Hermione asked as she backed away from Severus, the fear from his absence now turning into fear of his return.  
  
"The world is changing, my love. We must make the best of these hard times; prevail over those too weak to see what there is left in the world around them."  
  
Severus reached out a hand that Hermione reluctantly took. He pulled her to him, wrapping a steady arm arund his waist and turning her around to see the land before them. It was cast over with shadow and darkness, the evil seeping from the land.  
  
"There is power waiting to be wielded," Severus explained. "Together we could take this power and become something. Together we could live out our dreams as an everyday reality."  
  
"Did he promise you this?" Hermione asked softly as she thought of Voldemort.  
  
"Yes, he did. Lord Voldemort is a trusted ally, Hermione. We can either run from him, or learn from him. And if you will not accompany me, then I will be forced to rid the earth of your presence."  
  
Hermione let the words echo in her head. Never had she been offered a position such as this. Never had she even thought of the prospect of such a thing as absolute power. The ambition and will to dominate had never been a thought in her mind.  
  
"But I'm of muggle parentage," Hermione said. "I thought-"  
  
"There are exceptions to every rule," Severus said with a smile. "And you have been graced with the blessing of our Lord and Master. Will you come or no?"  
  
Hermione closed her eyes and thought of the times before when there was good left in the world. She could remember her friends and companions. She could remember Severus as he was. But it was all jsut a whisp of memory. She lived in the moment, not in the past. And it always did well to make the best of any situation. This was no exception.  
  
Hermione laced her fingers in with Severus's, squeazing them tightly and lovingly. He had always stood by her decisions, and she would now stand by his, for he had no ill intentions toward her. Love always had a strange way of coming about in the end.  
  
"I will follow you wherever your lead will take me," she said quietly, looking up to smile at his tender gaze. Evil always did have a way of warming the coldest of hearts.  
  
  
  
a/n: in all of the stories i've ever read, severus is all for the light side and not being evil. well i think there's still some evil left in him. and hermione hs the will to be like him too. so if you liked it, and even if you didn't, please review. it helps me to write more. 


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